IN ONE OF THE MOST exciting races of the conference track meet, Drew Winke (left) was trailing EBF’s Kalen Walker with Logan Stalzer appearing in fourth place in this photo. Winke put on a kick at the end to edge Walker with a lean across the tape while Stalzer closed to finish third.

It’s a 6-peat for boys track!

IN ONE OF THE MOST exciting races of the conference track meet, Drew Winke (left) was trailing EBF’s Kalen Walker with Logan Stalzer appearing in fourth place in this photo. Winke put on a kick at the end to edge Walker with a lean across the tape while Stalzer closed to finish third.

The boys’ championship rings moved to the other hand as the Blue Demon track team collected its sixth SCC Championship in a row on Thursday in Chariton.

“This was a fun meet to watch the guys compete,” said Coach Darren Hill. “They executed the plan very well, in route to posting 14 personal or season best performances and their sixth conference title in a row. I am very proud of all of them.”

“We started well in our first event, the long jump. We were projected to get third place only, and Gage Wilson jumped his season best 20’9.5” for first, and Zach DeMoss jumped his season best 17’6 for fifth place,” said Coach Hill. “They scored the team an additional six points there.” Blake Stewart placed sixth in the high jump (5’8”) as well.

The sprint medley team (Drew Winke, Nathan Crall, Beau Leshen, Nick Heffron) made an important impact as well. “We then came back in the sprint medley to get first,” said Coach Hill. ‘That gave the team much needed confidence, and they rolled from there.”

In the open races Drew Winke won the 100m dash (11.31) in an incredible lean at the finish line to beat Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont speedster Kalen Walker. Logan Stalzer placed third (11.54).

Stalzer placed third in the 200m dash (23.35) and Leshen placed fourth (23.69). Stalzer won the 400m dash (51.87) and Heffron took third (52.66). Nathan Parks placed fifth in the 800m run (2:08.7).

Brock Ratliff placed second in the 1600m run (4:52.66) while Cody Dalman placed fifth (5:05.10). Brock Ratliff followed that with a runner up effort in the 3200m run (10:43.95) while Dawson Bonnett placed fourth (11:14.07). Winke placed third in the 110 hurdles (15.85) while Carter Anderson placed fifth (17.64). Winke also placed second in the 400m hurdles (65.72) followed closely by Crall in third (58.10).

“Our relays did exactly what they needed to do and scored the points they needed to score to win the meet. We had several personal best split times.”

The 4x100 team (Wade Myers, Gage Wilson, Leshen, Stalzer) placed second (45.33) as did the 4x200 team (Myers, Wilson, Leshen Crall) in 1:34.39.

The 4x400 team (DeMoss, Parks, Heffron, Gage Wilson) won the event in 3:39.33 and the 4x800 team (DeMoss, Parks, Heffron, Gage Wilson) placed fourth in 9:23.40. The distance medley team (Wade Myers, Stewart, DeMoss, Brock Ratliff) placed third in 4:01.8 and the shuttle hurdle relay team (Crall, Nathan Wilson, C.J. Ratliff, Anderson) placed third in 1:06.83.

“So we are running pretty well right now,” said Coach Hill, “Peaking at the right time, with one week before the state qualifying meet at Eddyville.”

The Blue Demons will compete in Eddyville on Thursday at the state qualifying meet.